'Global aging' accelerating rapidly

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- "Global aging" is accelerating at an unprecedented pace in both developed and developing nations, a report commissioned by U.S. health officials indicates.

The report claims that in the approximately 30 years between mid-2008 and 2040, the number of people aged 65 and older will rise from 7 to 14 percent of the world's population, increasing from 506 million to 1.3 billion, the National Institute on Aging said in a release Monday.

The report, titled "An Aging World: 2008," was commissioned by the NIA, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, and was produced by the U.S. Census Bureau.

It found that not only the United States will face challenges associated with an increase in elderly. Researchers said developing nations will post the most rapid growth in elderly people, raising questions, they say, about how those people will be cared for when they reach old age.

"The fact that, within 10 years, for the first time in human history there will be more people 65 and older than children under 5 in the world underlines the extent of this change," said Richard Suzman, director of the NIA's Division of Behavioral and Social Research.